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Toolkit — Stakeholder map

Gate: G1 Observe. Category: framing artefact.

What problem it solves

A framed problem with no named stakeholders has no one to be accountable to and no one whose voice must be heard. The map forces the engagement to list — concretely — who is affected, who has authority, and who sees the consequences. Without the list, later gates quietly narrow the stakeholder set to whoever happens to be in the room; the people left off the map pay the cost of decisions they never knew were being made.

How it is used

A 45-minute G1 workshop alongside or immediately after the framed problem paragraph. The chair draws a two-axis grid (power × affected-by) or a three-ring diagram (in the process / served by the process / bystanders) and lets the group populate it with specific names or roles. Revisited at G3 (routing) and G5 (rollback triggers must be reviewable by the named stakeholders).

Inputs

  • The framed problem paragraph (slot 1 names the unit; the map names who touches it).
  • Organisational roster for the relevant functions.
  • Practitioner accounts of who actually shows up when this process runs — often different from the org chart.

Outputs

  • A map with specific entries: roles or people, position on the axes.
  • A voice-column note for each entry: how their view enters the engagement (workshop attendee, interview subject, written input, not-consulted-by-design).
  • A flagged absence list: stakeholders identified as affected but not represented in the engagement, with the explicit reason.

Visualisation

Stakeholder map — two-axis grid with power and affected-by, stakeholder dots positioned with role labels Power → Affected by the process → low-affected · high-power high-affected · high-power low-affected · low-power high-affected · low-power VP Ops (sponsor) Carrier-relations lead Dock operators Drivers (not in room) Dispatcher IT ops

Dots are represented stakeholders; hollow circles are flagged absences — stakeholders identified but not consulted, each with a recorded reason.

Anatomy

Axes. Power is the authority to change the process or veto changes. Affected-by is the degree to which the process's outputs land on them. The two axes together produce four quadrants; the top-right (high-power, high-affected) is the engagement's natural governance set, and the bottom-right (low-power, high-affected) is the group most often missed.

Entries. Specific roles or people, not functions. "The night-shift dispatcher team (12 people)" is better than "dispatch." Specificity matters because the voice column has to say how we hear this person.

Voice column. How each entry's view enters the engagement. Options: in the workshop, via interview, via written submission, via representative, not consulted — because [reason]. The not-consulted-by-design category is where the map earns its keep; it forces an explicit justification.

Flagged absences. Stakeholders named but not represented. Drawn as hollow circles. The absence is recorded with the reason (drivers work for third-party carriers; consultation not possible within engagement timeline) and carried into G3 so routing decisions account for the unheard voice.

Example

Paper trail — mapping the freight-yard stakeholders

G1 workshop, 50 minutes, following the framed paragraph. Chair: Ada. Sponsor: VP Ops. Practitioners: Raj, Priya.

T+0 — populate. Ada draws the axes. The sponsor populates high-power: VP Ops (himself), carrier-relations lead, IT ops director. Raj adds dispatcher (mid-power, high-affected), dock operators (low-power, high-affected).

T+15 — the drivers. Ada: "drivers are the highest-affected group on the map. Who speaks for them?" Raj: "drivers work for third-party carriers. We don't employ them." Ada: "so they are high-affected and we have no voice for them in the engagement." Hollow circle drawn. Reason recorded: drivers are third-party; carrier-relations lead carries a partial proxy, but the driver perspective is formally absent.

T+25 — voice column. Ada walks the map entry by entry. VP Ops: workshop. Carrier-relations lead: workshop + represents carrier perspective. Dispatcher: interview (two of the 12; scheduled week 2). Dock operators: shadowing (four shifts; scheduled week 3). IT ops: written input. Drivers: flagged absent.

T+40 — the dispatcher's quadrant moves. After the workshop, Ada reads back: "you've placed dispatchers at mid-power. Raj, is that right, or can dispatchers block the allocator?" Raj: "they can route around it by calling slots on radio. So — more power than mid." Dispatcher dot moves up. The engagement's routing must account for dispatcher workaround capacity; this becomes a G3 note.

T+50 — close. Map photographed. Voice column written. Two flagged absences (drivers, smaller regional carriers not represented by the carrier-relations lead). The map is attached to the framed paragraph and carried forward.

At G5. The commitment page's review cadence has to include dispatcher input (they can route around the piece) and must produce a written summary readable by carrier-relations (who speaks for the carriers). The stakeholder map is the index the cadence is built against.

Pitfalls

Org-chart laziness. The map mirrors the reporting hierarchy. Some of the most important stakeholders don't appear on the org chart (customers, regulators, frontline staff in functions reporting elsewhere).

Role without name. "Dispatcher" is enough as a label on the map but not enough as voice. The voice column needs which dispatchers, on what shifts, scheduled when.

Filing absences quietly. The hollow circles are the map's most important entries. A hollow circle without a reason is a map that has pretended to consider the absence. The reason is the audit artefact.

Treating the map as done. The map is re-read at G3 and G5. A stakeholder whose affected-by status has grown during the engagement (because of a routing choice) needs to be re-mapped, not assumed stable.

Power-as-authority only. Power is also power to refuse, to work around, to sabotage. Dock operators on strike are high-power in the blast window, whatever the org chart says. The map has to account for operational power, not just decisional.

When not to use

  • One-person engagements where the framed paragraph involves only the practitioner. The map is a single entry.
  • Repeat engagements where the stakeholder map from the prior engagement is still current. Re-read; do not re-draw.

Provenance

Freeman's Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach [1] is the canonical treatment of stakeholder analysis in strategy. The participation ladder of Arnstein [2] classifies stakeholder consultation quality from tokenism to full partnership and is the source of the voice-column discipline. Within requirements engineering, Glinz and Wieringa [3] document stakeholder mapping as a requirements-elicitation practice.

  • Framed problem paragraph. Slot 1 names the unit; the map names who touches it.
  • System description. Names what the stakeholders touch.
  • Bow-tie analysis. Barriers are owned by stakeholders from the map.

Verification

[1] Freeman RE. Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. Pitman; 1984. [verified] The canonical treatment of stakeholder theory in strategy.

[2] Arnstein SR. A ladder of citizen participation. Journal of the American Institute of Planners. 1969;35(4):216–24. [verified] The participation-quality ladder that the voice column generalises.

[3] Glinz M, Wieringa RJ. Stakeholders in requirements engineering. IEEE Software. 2007;24(2):18–20. [verified] Documents stakeholder mapping within requirements elicitation.